Energy providers face variable rates for energy during different yearly seasons and even throughout the hours of a single day. Energy rates for utility providers are often low in the morning and late at night, and then climb during peak-power usage hours in the late afternoon as customers run their air conditioners more extensively. However, many rate plans offered by energy providers to customers use a standard energy rate that does not track with the varying rate of energy paid by the energy providers. In order to more accurately pass the costs of energy onto customers, energy providers are beginning to offer residential time-of-use rates more widely. These pricing plans mean that customers are offered different rates for energy at different times of the day.
The problem is that customers have no easy or automated way of changing their consumption pattern to adapt to pricing changes through the course of a day, or from season to season, as these plans change). Utilities want to encourage more of their customers to adopt time-of-use rate plans because it more closely associates the cost to generate electricity with the rate the customer is paying. Key challenges of enabling adoption of these plans include helping customers (1) understand the implication of adopting a time-of-use rate plan, (2) adjust their consumption pattern to align with the customer's specific plan, and (3) manage energy usage within that persistent pricing plan, while automatically adapting to any short and long-term changes.